Lackluster
by RAWRitsG
Summary: He's your typical famous actor/singer; easily irritated, kind of intimidating, but still drop dead gorgeous. She's your average fangirl; painfully clumsy, more than a little annoying, and yet he saw a diamond in the rough. "You'd be perfect for my new movie. I'll help you rehearse to get over that stage fright." AU NxM


**Lackluster**

**I do not own Gakuen Alice!**

He's your typical famous actor/singer; easily irritated, kind of intimidating, but still drop dead gorgeous. She's your average fangirl; painfully clumsy, more than a little annoying, and yet he saw a diamond in the rough. "You'd be perfect for my new movie. I'll help you rehearse to get over that stage fright." AU NxM

* * *

**Mikan**

I groaned as the annoying warning bell rang. Usually the bell was thirty seconds of some lame song, but I found on Mondays it was especially hard to tolerate. Today was Monday, and most people hated Mondays. I wasn't an exception.

I was at school getting my books from my locker, when I heard a familiar cold voice call my name. I turned around, and grinned; it was Hotaru, my best friend. I could tell by the slight smirk on her lips that she had exciting news for me.

"What?" I asked, biting my lip in anticipation.

"He's coming," Hotaru said flatly, the corner of her lips slightly turning up. "Natsume Hyuga."

A frown took the place of my large grin, and I sighed. "You already know I can't go to his concert!"

She shook her head, her odd smile widening. "No, baka, I'm not talking about his concert. He's coming... to Alice Academy."

Hotaru held up her three fingers and as she let her final finger go limp, I screamed.

"You're kidding me right Hotaru? Oh my gosh," I exclaimed, fanning myself. "Natsume Hyuga? Like, the Natsume Hyuga?" my jaw dropped considerably, and my eyes widened to the size of flying saucers.

"I'm dead serious, can't you tell by my face?" she asked solemnly, she slowly backed up as I shut my locker to give her a huge hug. I grinned despite the rejection. Natsume Hyuga was coming to our school! I skipped animatedly down the halls, and paused when Hotaru stopped in front of the door to our homeroom.

Pushing the door open gently, she actually smiled. "Oh and Mikan..."

"What?" I replied anxiously.

"He's filming a movie here. He needs extras. Auditions are afterschool," my amethyst eyed best friend noted, pointing to a poster on the door.

My eyes lit up for a brief second, before falling at the word 'audition'.

"I have stage fright!" I cried sadly, latching myself onto Hotaru's arm. My lips formed a straight line and I hoped I was doing a good job at concealing my smirk of pride. Although I had minor stage fright, I was actually a pretty good actress. My tactic? Fake it. Cry. Blow them away.

"Get over it."

"Will you please please please try out with me, Hotaru?" I asked, squeezing her arm tighter.

She looked at me hesitantly, before nodding. My eyes widened, did she actually just... agree?

A smirk adorned her face at my reaction. "For the money of course."

I screamed, "Oh my gosh, yay! Thank you Hotaru! It won't be that bad I promise! We can both try out for the cheerleader spots! We took gymnastics, we're like pros, plus we probably won't even have to talk, just cheer!"

"Talking is cheering," Hotaru noted, frowning. I sighed at her lack of enthusiasm. Why couldn't she just be happy for me?

At that very moment the bell rang, and Hotaru and I rushed to our seats.

"Class, we have a new student today..."

* * *

**Natsume**

"This is the school they chose to film the movie at?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at the plain high school in front of me. An affirmative nod from my driver ellicited a wary sigh. I moved my arm to open the door to the limo only to find it was safety locked.

"I'm not a baby, you know that right?" I hissed, staring at my driver through the rearview mirror.

He frowned, "All due respect Natsume, but please don't jump to conclusions. We're planning on letting you out when the main bell rings and the fangirls are in class."

I glared, and tried to peer through the tinted windows. I saw blurry signs of, 'We Heart Natsume!" and I smirked triumphantly.

The main bell rung a few moments later, and we slowly drove up to the front doors of the school. The engine roared to a halt, and my door opened making way for me to exit the car. I removed my shades from on top of my head, and slipped them over my eyes walking into the school. My father, my bodyguard and I went inside and to the auditorium. I heard girls screaming my name from down the hallways.

"Ah, there you are Natsume," an older looking man noted, smiling at me. "We're so glad you decided to choose Alice Academy to film your new movie."

I nodded, and gripped his hand in a firm handshake. "The pleasure is mine."

"Later today, we'll be holding auditions in here if that's okay. We should head you off to your first class so you can become acquainted with the students here."

I bit my lip and contained a smirk, "Whatever you say."

.

I swore that my ears started bleeding at soon as I entered the room.

"Natsume, please marry me!"

"Natsume, please choose me for your movie"!

"Oh my god, Natsume!"

I took a deep breath, and entered the classroom, warily glancing at the fangirls. Among the first row was a childish looking girl with auburn hair twisted into two high pigtails. I stiffled a laugh at her immature hairstyle. If that was the extent of good looks at this school, I'd run to Koizumi and ask her to be an extra in my movie.

I cringed, thinking about how she had tried to seduce me in the changing room at that one set... Nevermind.

"Ah, there's the new student. Everyone, this is Natsume Hyuga. We're pleased to meet you," the teacher exclaimed. He looked flamboyant in a high collared ruffled pink shirt, and fluffy chachi sweats. I wrinkled my nose, this place was getting weirder and weirder.

"What do you think, Natsume?" the principal asked, nudging me lightly.

I smirked looking at the pigtail haired girl who looked like she was on the verge of fainting. I closed my eyes for a moment before pointing her out, "That girl looks like she's almost about to faint."

The principal looked anxiously for the girl I was pointing at and rushed over to her. "Mikan! Are you alright?"

She blushed, "A-ah, yeah uncle. No worries."

That was the principal's niece? Interesting.

"So how many of you are going to be auditioning for Natsume's movie afterschool?" the idiot teacher exclaimed.

All the females in the room bursted out into an excited chatter while raising their hands.

.

I stared at my watch and tried to block out the high pitched squeal of the girl in front of me. I groaned as she paused to pull her shirt down a little revealing her 'cleavage'.

I gave a hand signal to Narumi- the idiot teacher, and he ushered the girl off the stage.

We must have auditioned like the whole school by now. It was almost six and we had our final group left to see. The directors were busily running around prepping the cheerleaders as they were making their way to the front.

* * *

**Mikan**

They called all the girls trying out for the cheerleader rolls to the front row. Excitedly I pushed my way through the crowd to sit in the first row, closest to Natsume.

Disappointed, I saw that there were ten others in front of me and I went to the end of the line. Annoyed, Hotaru trailed behind me, her face cold and unaffected by the buzz of it all.

Before they started calling girls up, the director came to our row and told us that they just added in that one of the cheerleaders would become Natsume's love interest and then he handed us all papers with our lines on it. Everyone shrieked, except for me. I bit my lip nervously- don't get me wrong, I would love to play Natsume's love interest, but I can't just overcome my stage fright this easily. Especially, if I was going to have to... my eyes widened; kiss him?

Hotaru turned to me and saw the worry in my eyes.

"Don't worry, idiot," she said. I sighed, that was about the most sympathy I'd ever get from Hotaru.

Quickly, everyone went by and it was my turn. I got up and headed to the stage, on my way up, Hotaru gave me a quick thumbs up for good luck.

Okay, I could totally do this. I had read through the lines over a million times while I was waiting for my turn.

I can so do this.

Okay. I was wrong. I got to the middle of the stage and saw the whole school staring at me. I was staring blankly out into the audience. A cold sweat broke out onto my forehead, I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"Anytime you're ready Mikan," Narumi chirped. His words only served to freeze me in my spot.

"Right.. U-umm..." I stuttered looking at my feet. I looked out at the audience, and quickly returned my gaze to the floor.

Imagine they're in their underwear Mikan. Underwear.

A nervous laugh escaped from my lips, and I looked out at the audience again. I could tell they were about to burst out laughing. I repeated my slogan in my head. 'You can do this'.

My stomach twisted as a small chuckle erupted from the middle row. Hotaru glanced at me worriedly although I saw her whipping out her camera. I wouldn't be surprised if she would sell me one day in exchange for money.

"I can't do this," I mumbled, running off the stage and out the auditorium.

I exited out through the open door, and paused once I had reached the corner. Suddenly, I heard someone chasing after me. I felt a firm grip on my hand, and I whirled around sadly.

"Look, Hotaru...I'm sorry but I couldn't do it-" I looked up and my jaw dropped.

Instead of my cold-hearted bestfriend, I saw the figure of a five foot eight Natsume Hyuga hovering above me. I gulped, staring into his crimson eyes- He was even more attractive up close. My heart began racing. I didn't know whether to scream, cry or jump up and down.

"Are you okay?" he asked. My eyes widened, and just like I had froze in the auditorium, I did it again.

I looked down, I didn't want my story of the first time I met Natsume Hyuga to be; "Oh, I was auditioning for his movie but I failed miserably and ran off the stage crying and then he came to see if I was okay."

No way, that was just-

"Look, I know what its' like to have stage fright."

"Really...? But-but, you're Natsume Hyuga," I replied dumbfounded.

"Yeah. But your friend told me about you prior to the auditions, and showed me a tape of you reciting lines for a grade six play on her camera. I knew you could have done better than that."

My breath hitched- so that was why Hotaru had her camera there.

"Oh my gosh, really?" I asked quietly, disbelieving the sitatuon that had unfolded.

He smirked, and nodded, poking me in the forehead.

Oh my god, Natsume Hyuga had just poked me.

"Yes, you'd be perfect. I'll even help you after rehearsal to get you over your stage fright. Now come on, lets go tell the director," he said, holding out his hand to me.

I smiled shakily, and nervously placed his hand in mine.

Oh my god, now I was holding hands with the Natsume Hyuga!

I can't believe this was happening.

I couldn't stop smiling.

* * *

- Hey! Okay, so this is the first chapter of my new story, which is pretty much self explanatory so I'm not gonna write a whole paragraph talking about it more.. But what I'm going to do is write a whole paragraph about my friend, **jAyesque**! She helped me edit this chapter and made this story like 100x better. You probably have already heard of her, shes so amazing. We've been friends forever and shes honestly like the best writer in the world. If you haven't checked out her stories, GO. NOW. Haha, seriously, you won't regret it! And don't forget to write her positive reviews! I'd really really like to write more but Fanfiction's giving me a limit on how many words for new users or first stories. Something like that. But you have to go check out her fanfiction, like, now.

Thanks for reading, leave reviews and chapter 2 will be out soon! (:

-G


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